Five stories in the news today, April 21

04/21/2015 04:17 EDT
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Updated
07/12/2015 01:59 EDT

CP

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Five stories in the news today, April 21, from The Canadian Press:

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FEDERAL BUDGET EXPECTED TO SHORE UP TORY WEAKNESSES

It's budget day in Ottawa, and with a federal vote due to arrive by Oct. 19, it's also the unofficial launch of the 2015 campaign. Finance Minister Joe Oliver will deliver his first budget — the 11th since Stephen Harper's Conservatives came to office in 2006. The headline fact is already known — it'll be a balanced budget.

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LOANS FOR NEWCOMERS TO BE INCLUDED IN FEDERAL BUDGET

More newcomers will have access to federal loans to help get their professional training up to Canadian standards as part of today’s federal budget. A government source tells The Canadian Press that the pilot foreign credential recognition loan program is set to be made permanent. The goal, as the Tories often put it, is to ensure doctors don't come to Canada and end up driving cabs.

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JURY SELECTION CONTINUES IN HALIFAX MURDER TRIAL

Jury selection will resume today in Halifax in the case of two people charged in the death of Loretta Saunders. Blake Leggette and Victoria Henneberry are each charged with first-degree murder. Saunders body was found near the Trans-Canada Highway in New Brunswick, two weeks after she disappeared from her Halifax apartment in February 2014.

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DOCTORS TO GIVE UPDATE ON LIVER TRANSPLANT FOR GIRL, 3

Doctors from two Toronto hospitals are to issue an update today on a life-saving liver transplant for a three-year-old Kingston, Ont., girl. Binh Wagner's family says she received part of a liver from an anonymous donor. Binh's twin sister Phuoc went through the same surgery in February, receiving part of her father Michael Wagner's liver to combat a potentially fatal genetic disorder the girls share.

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OFFICIALS SEEK CAUSE OF HOUSE EXPLOSION IN TORONTO

Police have identified a man who died in an explosion that levelled a house in northeastern Toronto as Paul Zigomanis, 57. He was pronounced dead on the scene following the Monday afternoon blast. Fire Capt. Adrian Ratushniak said there was a severed gas line in the area, but couldn't say what came first — the explosion or the gas leak.

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ALSO IN THE NEWS TODAY ...

— The Newfoundland and Labrador government opens the legislative session with a throne speech.